Carolina - # 1 lock
Broncos - even if Broncos win, they will have the lower strength of schedule.
Loser of Cards / Niners will draft ahead of the Texans.

To pick #4...
The Bengals have to beat the Ravens (Ravens still alive for division with a Steelers loss, so they will be trying.)
The Bills have to beat the Jets (Jets are locked into the 6 seed - should rest)

To Pick #5
Two of the Bengals, Bills, or Cowboys have to win.
Cowboys have Philly in Philly, but the Eagles will probably rest players after their crazy Tuesday night game.
The winner of the Cards/49ers will pick after the Texans

Basically if the Texans lose, they will pick no worse than 7th.

If they win...

worst case would be 14th...but don't have the SOS for the teams with 6 wins...might be better than that.

Carolina - # 1 lock
Broncos - even if Broncos win, they will have the lower strength of schedule.
Loser of Cards / Niners will draft ahead of the Texans.

To pick #4...
The Bengals have to beat the Ravens (Ravens still alive for division with a Steelers loss, so they will be trying.)
The Bills have to beat the Jets (Jets are locked into the 6 seed - should rest)

To Pick #5
Two of the Bengals, Bills, or Cowboys have to win.
Cowboys have Philly in Philly, but the Eagles will probably rest players after their crazy Tuesday night game.
The winner of the Cards/49ers will pick after the Texans

Basically if the Texans lose, they will pick no worse than 7th.

If they win...

worst case would be 14th...but don't have the SOS for the teams with 6 wins...might be better than that.

Thanks for running that down Stan. I'm following the mock threads closely. Looks like the Texans will be in a great position to draft a game changer. Need a few more pieces I know, but it's a start.

He's not quite the prospect Suh was last year, but he would be an instant game changer for us if we get him. The roughness penalties don't concern me, as it would just take a slight adjustment to fix that.

He's not quite the prospect Suh was last year, but he would be an instant game changer for us if we get him. The roughness penalties don't concern me, as it would just take a slight adjustment to fix that.

Dareus looked bigger than Fairley to me in the 3 games I watched him in this yr. (LSU,South Car,Aub) but after reading his bio it lists him at 280 lbs. That's lighter than Fairley. I was wrong.

At 280 LBS Dareus is a prototypical 3-4 DE. He is strong as a bull.

Which wouldn't be a bad pick considering the fact that there will no doubt be a defensive coaching change. We could be running a 3-4 next year.

Picking in the 5-10 range also gives us an opportunity to trade down. Picks 5-10 are better trade bait than 1-4 IMO. Getting an extra 2nd rounder or maybe two 3rd rounders would be ideal in our situation.

I like the idea of going heavy pass rushing route if we go to the 3-4. We need a Ryan Kerrigan, Von Miller, Dareus type of player. While Darues isn't a pure pass rusher, he creates enough havoc and serves two purposes. After that we need to go safety in one of the next 2 rounds. Overall, I think we would be better served grabbing the front 7 players we need to add depth rather than draft a CB in the later rounds. If we can't get a top flight corner in this draft we may as well ignore it altogether. We have plenty of young corners, adding a veteran CB in the off-season would be the best move. It doesn't have to be Champ Bailey but a guy who can atleast play the nickel and start here and there.